February, 2020

• 2 February

  US criticises UN agencies for Taiwan exclusion amid virus

  

  Bloomberg US politicians, including Senators Mitt Romney and Cory Gardner, criticised international organisations for excluding Taiwan amid a global effort to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus. China has placed pressure on the World Health Organization (WHO), International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and International Criminal Police Organization to exclude Taiwan from discussions, Romney said, echoing calls for immediate inclusion ...

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• 2 February

  Emails reveal Trump’s Ukraine role, says US

  

  Bloomberg The Justice Department, in a court filing, said it has two dozen emails related to President Donald Trump’s involvement in withholding millions of dollars in security assistance to Ukraine, CNN reported. The filing, made in response to a lawsuit by the Center for Public Integrity, was the first official acknowledgment from the Trump administration of the existence of such ...

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• 2 February

  Malawi’s top court to rule on presidential poll

  

  Bloomberg Claims by Malawi’s opposition that last year’s election that returned President Peter Mutharika to power was rigged should be decided upon on Monday when the nation’s top court is due to rule on whether to annul the vote. The electoral commission declared Mutharika, the leader of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, the winner of the May 21 ballot with ...

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• 2 February

  Guaido rallies supporters, meets US senator

  

  Bloomberg Juan Guaido, Venezuela’s opposition leader, rallied supporters in Miami and met with US Senator Marco Rubio, who’s played a key role in shaping US policy on the South American country. It’s likely to be one of his last stops in a two-week global tour aimed at building support to oust his rival, President Nicolas Maduro. “We have a strategy, ...

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• 2 February

  Brexit halo fades for Irish leader fighting for survival

  

  Bloomberg As Irish PM Leo Varadkar welcomed European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, there was plenty of noise. Here was the EU’s top official coming to Dublin on the first full day of an election campaign. But as von der Leyen commended him for his statesmanship during Britain’s divorce from the EU, outside the building that houses Ireland’s key ...

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• 2 February

  HK medical workers vote to strike amid outbreak

  Bloomberg Thousands of Hong Kong medical professionals voted to begin a five-day strike on Monday after the government refused their demand to shut all entry points from China amid a deadly virus outbreak on the mainland. The Hospital Authority Employees Alliance said there were about 99% of “Yes” votes cast by its members. More than 9,000 members have pledged to ...

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• 2 February

  Earnings an afterthought in panic-stricken market

  

  Bloomberg Investors who assumed the quarterly deluge of corporate results would determine the direction of stocks in late January have obviously found themselves with much bigger concerns to cope with. Earnings season is fast being forgotten in a market where cascading fear about the human toll of coronavirus has come to dominate sentiment. The S&P 500 just dropped the most ...

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• 2 February

  Pound ended tough month on bright note

  

  Bloomberg The pound ended a tumultuous month on a high note on the Brexit day. Sterling was on course for its biggest weekly gain since mid-December, a day after the Bank of England (BOE) kept interest rates unchanged, supporting the currency. Analysts expect it to climb more than 1% to $1.33 by the end of June, according to a Bloomberg ...

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• 2 February

  Uber suspends 240 Mexican accounts to prevent virus spread

  

  Bloomberg Uber Technologies Inc has suspended 240 user accounts in Mexico to contain the potential spread of coronavirus. The users suspended had ridden with two drivers who came into contact with a possible coronavirus case, according to a statement posted to the company’s Mexican Twitter account. To date, there have been no confirmed cases of the virus in the country. ...

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• 2 February

  Brexit hangover kicks in for EU leaders debating budget gap

  

  Bloomberg Twelve hours after the UK formally left the European Union, the bloc’s poorer members gathered in an old Franciscan convent in southern Portugal to rally against a looming budgetary shortfall that’s partly due to the loss of British contributions. Brexit is deepening the rift between richer and poorer EU states as they clash on the bloc’s trillion-euro ($1.1 trillion) ...

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